Big buildings pay very little tax

[1]

A major speciality hospital in the heart of the city pays just Rs 50 as annual building tax to the corporation.

The reason? It had been functioning all along with the number of a small thatched house. The revenue department has identified this serious anomaly and directed the health department to take immediate measures to cancel the licence of the building.

The revenue special squad in its recent inspection found that the numbers given to many of the big commercial buildings in the city were false and were those of small residential buildings.

Many of them are still functioning with the number of other small residential structures resulting in a major revenue loss to the civic body. Sources in the corporation confirm that this has been on for more than a decade.

It is learnt that several buildings on M.G.Road and Panampilly Nagar have been functioning thus. At Panampilly Nagar, many residential buildings have been converted for commercial purposes and the revenue squad traced 40 such cases recently and issued notice to the owners.

To plug this loss, the revenue department authorities have made their concurrence mandatory for issuing and renewing the annual licence of all buildings, whether residential or commercial. The revenue officials have also asked the health department not to issue or renew licence without proper verification.

At the same time, revenue officials claim that all such anomalies will be rectified with the implementation of the new self-assessment tax system.

“When the building owners submit the self declaration tax return forms, we will compare it with the licence register. If any residential building is found to be used for commercial purposes or any other anomalies are detected, we will cancel its occupancy certificate,” said a department official.